The Little People
2022
Fiberglass, resins, steel, wood, glass, plaster, LEDs. 9ft x 18ft x 18ft (entire installation).
‘Everyone needs more whimsy in their lives: [The Little People] is a highly tactile, gestural and playful installation that engages children and adults’ (CODAworx, 2022).
The Little People debuted as Honoraria at Burning Man 2022 and is now held in the private collection of renowned LA art collector and founder of the Rafael Auto & Collectible Museum, Sheldon Donig.
The Little People is a free-standing sculpture installation comprising seven characters from children’s literature. Dot (Dorothy from ’The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, and Chip (Christopher Robin from ‘Winnie the Pooh’) are reimagined with playful charm. They are accompanied by both Peg the sausage dog (Toto) and an OJO toy (Pooh), as well as three small sprite-like entities. The mischievous Pants (Peter Pan) perches atop the central lamppost, the toadstooly Rooms (Alice in Wonderland) sits at the base and Lolly (Lucy from Narnia) is represented in a lioness lantern above. All characters fuse classic symbolism from the books with dream-like details and maximalist textures, colors and pattern work.
The Little People is rooted in autobiography. The use of the literary traditions of the artists’ respective US and British heritages, the relative proportions of the two main figures, the creation of Peg the sausage dog (the artists’ own studio dog) in the place of Toto, and the glass OJO toy substituting Pooh bear, a witty reference to our 2018 Odd Jelly Out installation all nod to the personal lives of the creators. This marking of past work is also present in the inclusion of the three sprite-like entities. These liminal beings speak similarly of the relentless passage of time, the visceral alienation of the Nevadan desert (wherein the project debuted) and the enduring memory of lost friends.